It’s the flat earth movement all over again. The flat earth thing started as a joke on 4chan. Like “wouldn’t it all be funny if we took something blatantly false and pretended to believe in it?” Then the idiots caught a whiff of it, mistook it for people being serious, then joined in unironically. At that point, 4chan took a step back and laughed, because what else can you do at that point? The idiocy fission reaction was self-sustaining at that point, so 4chan just let go of the reins and watched to see where it would go.
It dates back way further than 4chan, I want to say 70s maybe. But yeah this happens every couple of decades with flat earthers, hell I think there was a flat earth group back in the 1800s which was basically a running joke amongst naturalists. Then the dumbfucks came out of the woodwork.
Nah, I've got a family member who voted for trump and loves RatM. They honestly think the lyrics support conservative ideals, and advocate for violence against people who would change the country from the "good ol' days."